vs Ross County

[wee_od_88]

Away to the Highlands tomorrow lunchtime for a game against high flying Ross County. We need to avenge defeat from the last time we played them.

We have Commons, Ledley, Ambrose and Wilson back but this week we are without Hooper, Samaras, Mulgrew, Forster and Izzy.

I think that will mean Gershon will be LB today. Up front will be Stokes and Watt but I think we might get to see Keatings and/or Atajic as well. Keatings is on the fringes again but Atajic has been in good form recently and has been praised for his performance in the recent Youth Cup Final victory.

Paul George and Callum McGregor could also be in the team today but unfortunately no Marcus Fraser as he has sustained a nasty injury and won't be back to match sharpness until the end of the year now!

I wonder whether Zaluska will play today or whether we will give the young Swedish keeper a chance; Viktor Noring.

It's really difficult to pick a team today because we have so many options....its difficult to say who else might get a rest tomorrow.

Zaluska
Lustig - Ambrose - Rogne - Gershon
McGeouch - Kayal - Wanyama - Forrest
Watt - Stokes

Something like that? I'd like to see the younger ones get a chance though. Rogic could play again in which case make it a back 3 and move Rogic behind the strikers!

 

[welch47]

They scored the equalizer on a nice shot. We've dominated play. Just need more goals. Nice shot from Stokes gets a corner.

 

[wee_od_88]

Didn't get to see any of the game or really keep up to speed with it but I saw the starting line-up and was actually surprised how strong it was. I was also led to believe Izzy was getting a rest this week but clearly that wasn't the case.

Very disappointing having taken an early lead that we weren't then able to build on that and even more disappointing that we conceded and couldn't get the win! From the twitter updates I was reading in the second half.......it seemed as though County had a lot of chances as well.....which makes it all the more worrying.

I really think we need some work in the midfield because I think if the midfield isn't working well enough then we aren't giving enough protection to the defence. We seem to be far too open to a counter attack! We are obviously still lacking creativity in the midfield as well so hopefully we can fix that problem this summer!

 

[welch47]

The problem is in the midfield. We aren't dominating the run of play the way we did in the first half of the season. Part of it is missing Brown but we don't have steady players on the wings, either. There is no creative force in the center of midfield. Brown is the most creative and it's not really his game.

 

[wee_od_88]

Quite agree, more balance would make up for a lack of creativity in most games but we are missing both. Why Forrest hasn't been playing in the last two games I have no idea! He wanted a good run in the team because he missed so much of the season!

McGeouch needs confidence to be at his best and we've seen how good he can be but I think he has to be playing regular, even if from the bench and that's not been happening for him much this season which is unfortunate.

I've been thinking that I think using more of our youngsters might help the team. I think a key thing this season has been the number of young home grown players being used by every SPL club.....with the exception of us! Some of them have been fantastic performers and some have been good but still look inexperienced as you would imagine. But I think they bring a desire and hunger to the team that has been missing a lot more with us domestically this season. I know Neil Lennon will dispute that but that is how it feels with some of them.

I think the size of the squad has been a problem this season as well. Forrest, Brown and Stokes have been the only real injury problems this season other than the odd knock here and there for a few others. That has meant we have had no real use for the younger players, even as subs! Even if we have been a few goals up, Lennon hasn't looked to use them. I think we've just had too many players in the squad and instead of playing the best balanced team or playing players in their best positions, we have moved players round to suit because rather than play the right players.....we have chosen to play the highest number of "first team" players as we possibly can in the hope that they are good enough no matter where they play to get the win.......

At the end of the day, almost every team has found a way of beating us.....defend with almost all of your players and then counter attack!